A Forest Of Whispering Speakers - The Book

Two writers. Ten years of trust. One Tragically Hip catalogue. Episode two is the story of how the book got written without flattening the band.

Episode Summary

A Forest Of Whispering Speakers is the oral history of the Theatre Aquarius world premiere of It's a Good Life If You Don't Weaken, the new musical built on the music of The Tragically Hip. Act II: The Book is the writers' room episode — how an exile's journey gets shaped into a story, and how Hip songs become the emotional grammar of that story without ever turning it into a band biography or a jukebox musical.

Host jD sits down with co-writers Ahmed Moneka and Jesse LaVercombe, with producer Michael Rubinoff and Tragically Hip manager Jake Gold stepping in to frame the bigger picture. The episode opens at a campfire in Prince Edward County in 2015, traces the ten-year partnership that built King Gilgamesh and the Man of the Wild at Soulpepper, and lands on the two different doors each writer walked through to find The Hip — one across a bridge in Bobcaygeon, the other watching Gord say goodbye from south of the border.

Inside the episode: the load-bearing wall of a decade-long friendship, the yin-yang of Ahmed's exile and Jesse's grief, a Thornton Wilder quote about platitudes, and a working theory that 700 people in a theatre cannot lie to you at once.

Guest Info

• Ahmed Moneka (Toronto, via Baghdad) — Co-writer of It's a Good Life If You Don't Weaken. Iraqi-Canadian actor, singer, and writer. Co-creator of King Gilgamesh and the Man of the Wild.
• Jesse LaVercombe (Toronto, via the United States) — Co-writer of It's a Good Life If You Don't Weaken. Writer and performer. Co-creator of King Gilgamesh and the Man of the Wild.
• Michael Rubinoff — Producer, It's a Good Life If You Don't Weaken. Originating producer of Come From Away.
• Jake Gold — Manager, The Tragically Hip.

Resources & Links

• Theatre Aquarius — It's a Good Life If You Don't Weaken
• King Gilgamesh and the Man of the Wild — Soulpepper Theatre
• Driftwood Theatre — Shakespeare in the Park, Southern Ontario
• The Hip Compendium - compendium.tthpods.com
• Hipbase
• HipMuseum
• This Is Our Life
• The Tragically Hip Archive

Calls to Action

• See the show. It's a Good Life If You Don't Weaken runs at Theatre Aquarius in Hamilton through May 16, 2026. Tickets at tickets.tthpods.com.
• Explore The Hip Compendium — 1,358 mapped live shows, full discography, On This Day, and more at compendium.tthpods.com.

Closing Paragraph

Thanks to Ahmed Moneka and Jesse LaVercombe for the time, the candour, and the campfire story. Thanks to Michael Rubinoff and Jake Gold for the framing. Act II is the writers' room. Act III: The Craft drops Monday, May 18 — the design team, the orchestrator, the choreographer, and the people who turn the page into a stage. So there's that.

Promos & Crosslinks

• podList 7 - "the classics" drops Friday, May 15. Eighteen tracks of 1987–1995 era covers, including intentional duplicate covers of 'Nautical Disaster' and 'Fiddler's Green'.
• Previous episode: A Forest Of Whispering Speakers - Act I: The Idea
• Companion listening: The Tragically Hip On Shuffle - Live Stream, Wednesdays 8 PM ET

Socials & Community

• Facebook group: community.tthpods.com
• Instagram: @tthpods
• YouTube: youtube.com/@tthpods
• Email: [email protected]

 #TheTragicallyHip #TheHip #ItsAGoodLifeIfYouDontWeaken #TheatreAquarius #AhmedMoneka #JesseLaVercombe

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